Working hard to get things ready for the art market tomorrow.  
This is my first public showing and I'm a bit nervous.  But Jeanne from Not Your Family Jewels, convinced me to come out and give it a try.  I've been working for over a week to get as much made and put together as possible.  Along with the flower pins and headbands, I've also made some stationery sets and notebooks with hand-carved stamps and all.  There's a food truck rodeo coming to town, and the Art Market at Vega Metals is having a special art day.  I'll be set up from 12:30-4:30 on Hunt Street, so come on by!!  I'd love to see some friendly faces and who can resist the 40+ food trucks that will be set up all over with their enticing smells and unusual cuisines?!  

Above is the new look of my boxes and below is a peak of my hand-carved and stamped handmade stationery sets, SO CUTE!  If you love paper as much as I do :)

My dear boy, you didn't get the memo.  You aren't supposed to get older.  Time is supposed to stand still and I'm supposed to be able to never feel like you're getting older and becoming more independent.  You're my little man, you always have been and today, you turn 7...I'm not ready for this...  You're in second grade.  You're a fantastic reader.  Your smart, creative, kind, silly, a protector of your sister, and you are growing before my eyes.  If time could stand still, maybe I'd have time to gather all of the wonderful moments into a jar for me to keep forever, and maybe then, I'd be OK with you growing up.  I'd be eager maybe for time to move on so that I could collect more moments into my Special Moments jar.  I know I can't keep you still in time, it isn't fair, and I know that there are many more wonderful things for you to accomplish that only time is standing in your way to do.  You want to give talks, get baptised, you want to drive a car, you want to travel around the world and build Kingdom Halls for our brothers and sisters.  I know you say you don't want to get married, but maybe someday you will, then I'll get to meet your beautiful bride that I know you will treat with tender affection, and maybe you'll have children, and oh boy, I'm gonna be the best grandma ever.  But only time will allow these things to come.  Time that I have no control over. So I look at the moments behind and the ones to come, bitter-sweetly I greet them and watch them come and go.  Today my boy, you are 7.  When you were born, there was a terrible hurricane that was named after me.  I cried with joy the moment we first met.  I knew then that you were something special, and you haven't proved me wrong yet.  You are such a sweet, kind and thoughtful person.  I love you.

A dear friend wasn't able to join us at the Convention this year and we all wanted to let her know she was sorely missed.  As I walked through the halls, I bumped into many friends of hers who happily posed for my camera so that we could show  her that even though she wasn't there in Body, she was there in spirit and on the minds of all her friends.
So Tricia Jane, this is for you.  We look forward to the day that you are fully back to yourself again and can enjoy all the things in Jehovah's Organization that you love so much!